Sharing common values and beliefs is powerful. Along with common vision and mission or what you are going to do – in other words, being of one mind – it is essential for long-term success that everyone shares core values or how you will do what you do – being of one heart.
Welcome to the second episode of By Your Life. Thank you for joining me.
My goal is to inspire, empower, support, challenge, and encourage you to connect Sunday, with Monday-Friday, in a secular, business world. It is my desire to help you live your Catholic faith in the marketplace, and to trust that it is good for business. I hope to offer you practical ways to go forth and glorify the Lord by your life.
In this edition, we will reflect on the readings for Divine Mercy Sunday and the application to your work life.
Sunday’s Gospel was the famous story of Doubting Thomas. We hear about how the Lord appeared to the disciples, showed them his hands and his feet, and how they rejoiced when they saw him. Then, Jesus gives them a mission “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” Jn 20:21 He commissioned them and gave them the authority to accomplish the mission. “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” Jn 20:22-23
What a great example of leadership! Not only does he give them the responsibility, he grants them the authority. I know that sounds simple, but I’ve witnessed failure within a leadership team when the goals are unclear and those who are held responsible are not provided what they need for success – the tools, resources and authority to carry out the tasks.
As the Gospel story continues, we see a problem unfold…there was a holdout on Jesus’ leadership team. Thomas wasn’t on the same page as the rest of the team. Has that ever happened to you? Have you struggled to convince a team member to get on board? We hear the disciples trying to convince Thomas, but he demands proof.
Imagine if Thomas went on unbelieving. He’d likely have challenged, questioned, and belittled the others, until they started to question too. Think about how he would have continued to cause disruption within the team and likely undermined their work in the field. He may even have accused them of being crazy! Nothing would have made the competition happier than to have an insider contradict the Truth. Oh, how they would have exploited that! I can hear the breaking news now, “One of the 12 accuses others of lunacy. Details at 11!”
Jesus knew that unity was essential for the Church to grow. He knew that everyone needed to share the same beliefs. In business, we call these common beliefs “core values.”
In the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, we hear that “The community of believers was of one heart and mind.” Acts 4:32 I know that this unity – of one heart and mind – was essential for the first Christians overcome a lot of obstacles. This unity gave them “great power” to bear witness to the resurrection and “great favor was accorded them all.” Acts 4:33
Sharing common values and beliefs is powerful. Along with common vision and mission or what you are going to do – in other words, being of one mind – it is essential for long-term success that everyone shares core values or how you will do what you do – being of one heart.
Sharing common values and beliefs is powerful!I mentioned in the last podcast that I was inspired to write a book. I know in my heart that it was a divine inspiration. Not only was the thought so clear that it was audible, I was immediately filled with the desire and confidence to write it.
The book, published in 2012, is called The Value of Core Values, Five Keys to Success through Values-Centered Leadership. It is a book about businesses that are successful because they live their core values. I interviewed dozens of companies and used their stories to demonstrate that living according to your core values and profitability are not mutually exclusive objectives. Rather, it is through living your values that you attain sustainable profitability.
This Sunday’s readings highlight lessons that these CEOs taught me.
1) You have share your core values…everyone in your organization must know what they are and own them. I’ve already talked about how the Acts of the Apostles, tells us that “the early community of believers was of one heart and mind.” Acts 4:32
2) It is not enough to just believe the same thing, you must live by them. Your behaviors have to reflect the values. They are non-negotiable. They are “commandments” if you will, that everyone in the organization agrees to honor.
Your core values are “commandments” that everyone in the organization agrees to honor. It is not burdensome for committed companies to honor their values.Just as the second reading from 1 John 1:5-6 says “his commandments are not burdensome”, I discovered that it was not burdensome for these committed companies to honor their values. They repeatedly told me that having a set of shared core values led to the easiest difficult decisions they ever made (decisions like firing an employee who consistently violated them or firing a client when serving them would require compromising your values).
But, what do you do if you have a holdout? What if you have a key player– someone on your leadership team–who doesn’t share the values? How do you convince someone, like Thomas, who says, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe”? John 20:25
I think the solution is the same as it is anytime you have conflict in your organization. To explain, I’d like to first share with you a powerful song from Cross and Light that may give you a new perspective about Thomas…
As the song begins, we hear the back and forth between Peter “He is alive” and Thomas “I will not believe.” Most arguments, most conflicts follow this path with each person stating their case, usually louder and louder, and neither one is listening to the other! Then, Peter steps back, the tone of the conversation totally changes. Peter discovers what is really behind Thomas’s unbelief. The real problem wasn’t so much Thomas didn’t trust Peter and doubted his witness of the resurrection, as it was that Thomas doubted Jesus’s love for him. Without this understanding, Peter could have continued pressing and pressing “He is alive!” and getting nowhere.
If you want to address conflict or address someone who doesn’t share your core values, you must get underneath and understand why the other person believes what they do, so you can address the underlying issue. It is only then that you can help the person embrace your core values and share your beliefs. In the end, it is up to them. They must choose to come on board or leave.
If you have someone who doesn’t share your core values, they must choose to come on board, or leave.And, it was up to Thomas to come around. He had to choose. Luckily for him, Jesus showed Thomas that his death and resurrection—his love—was for everyone, and Thomas believed.
Jesus said to Thomas, “Do not be unbelieving, but believe” and he challenges us in the same way. He challenged St. Faustina in the same way.
In the 1930s, Jesus chose this humble Polish nun, St. Maria Faustina Kowalska, to share his message of mercy. In her diary, she often wrote about her doubts–her doubts about her ability, her doubts about her worthiness, her doubts about what Jesus told her to do.
He instructed her to tell the whole world about his inconceivable mercy. He requested that his image be painted and “Jesus, I trust in You” inscribed under it. And, he desired that the Feast of Divine Mercy be celebrated the first Sunday after Easter. In spite of her doubts, St. Faustina was obedient to the Lord and the Lord put other people in place, including her confessor, Fr. Michael Sopocko and St. John Paul II, to help her share his message. As St. John Paul II wrote:
“This was precisely the time when those ideologies of evil, nazism and communism, were taking shape. Sister Faustina became the herald of the one message capable of off-setting the evil of those ideologies, that fact that God is mercy—the truth of the merciful Christ. And for this reason, when I was called to the See of Peter, I felt impelled to pass on those experiences of a fellow Pole that deserve a place in the treasury of the universal Church.”
~ Pope Saint John Paul II, Memory and Identity (2005)
St. Faustina trusted and was obedient. St. John Paul II, trusted and was obedient. We too need to choose to trust, every day, so that we can be obedient. And, when the world, and circumstances, and business challenges cause us to doubt, we need to speak the words “Jesus, I (choose to) trust in you.”
When the world, and circumstances, and business challenges cause you to doubt, speak the words “Jesus, I trust in You.”God’s message of trust and mercy are not just for a few. It is for all of us. When we trust, he may work in amazing ways as he did through St. Faustina and St. Pope John Paul II to spread his message of Divine Mercy throughout the world. Or, he may work in much smaller, yet just as amazing ways, when he inspires someone like me to write a book sharing the message of living your core values.
How about you? How is God calling you to trust in him? Turn to him today so you can receive “a whole ocean of graces (poured) upon those souls who approach the Fount of My mercy.” (Diary, no. 699)
Let us ask the Holy Spirit to fill us with the gift of faith so that we may choose to trust in those moments we are filled with doubt.
May God bless you abundantly with his Divine Mercy and the grace to trust in him and go in peace, glorifying him by your life. Amen
I want to thank Kelly Nieto and Cross and Light for allowing me to share their song I Need to See. You can learn about this amazing musical and multi-sensory video experience, of Jesus’ death, resurrection, and the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, at https://crossandlight.com/ or on Facebook or download their app Cross and Light on Google Play or the App Store.
Many thanks to Fr. Stan Fortuna for his musical gifts, especially the traditional and contemporary versions of Come Holy Ghost (Come Holy Spirit) that you hear in this podcast. You can find more from Fr. Stan at http://www.francescoproductions.com/ or on Facebook.
More information about Divine Mercy Sunday and the Image of Divine Mercy
Divine Mercy Sunday
St. Faustina’s Diary records 14 occasions when Jesus requested that a Feast of Mercy (Divine Mercy Sunday) be observed, for example:
“My daughter, tell the whole world about My inconceivable mercy. I desire that the Feast of Mercy be a refuge and shelter for all souls, and especially for poor sinners. On that day the very depths of My tender mercy are open. I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the Fount of My mercy. The soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment. … Let no soul fear to draw near to Me. … It is My desire that it be solemnly celebrated on the first Sunday after Easter. Mankind will not have peace until it turns to the Fount of My Mercy.” (Diary, no. 699)
On May 5, 2000, five days after the canonization of St. Faustina, the Vatican decreed that the Second Sunday of Easter would henceforth be known as Divine Mercy Sunday.
The Image: Jesus appeared to St. Faustina in a vision, with his right hand raised in a blessing and his left touching his garment above his heart. Red and white rays emanate from his heart, symbolizing the blood and water that was poured out for our salvation and our sanctification.
The Lord requested that “Jesus, I trust in You” be inscribed under his image. Jesus asked that his image be painted and venerated throughout the world:
“I promise that the soul that will venerate this image will not perish” (Diary, no. 48) and “By means of this image I will grant many graces to souls” (Diary, no. 742).
